Research Information System
9TH MEETING OF THE INTERNATIONAL SOCIETY FOR THE HISTORY OF MEDICINE (ISHM) -, Pekin, China, 6 - 11 September 2017, pp.114
Patient transport, from the first wounded or ill person up to the present day, has
evolved in parallel with advances in means of transport and technology. Within this
period, a number of methods for carrying the sick and wounded have been developed.
Along with geographic conditions, wars, and natural disasters, socio-economic
advances of societies have played a critical role in the development of these methods.
Patient transport has encompassed a wide variety of methods, beginning with carrying
patients in others’ arms or on backs, to devices resembling stretchers using boards or
cloth, animals such as horses or camels, vehicles pulled by animals, and extending to
motorized vehicles such as ambulances, boats, trains, and helicopters. Development
of these methods has occurred parallel to advances in medicine and examination of
these methods reveals another facet of the history of medicine. For example, modes
of patient transport provide information regarding the value that societies place on the
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sick, how patient welfare is ensured, and where and under what conditions medical
intervention takes place. In addition, this study also explains which of these methods
are used in what geographies, which are preferred under what kinds of socio-economic
conditions, and presents details concerning the level of medical science during times of
war or major outbreaks in which developments in patient transport were made. Thus,
our study aims to investigate the subject of patient transport from an evolutionary
perspective.
Key words: Patient, transportation, evolution